Facebook Offspring Quora Raises $50M Round Led By Facebook Investor

Whither the Facebook Mafia? Raising for and funding Quora, apparently.

Those Facebookers are making it rain and the IPO isn’t even scheduled until Friday. The Wall Street Journalreports today that ex-Facebookers Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever have raised a new $50 million round of funding for their Q&A site Quora, led by–surprise!–Facebook board member Peter Thiel.

The news comes on the heels of a New York Timespiece that chronicled the new “circle of tech:” collect payout, do a startup.

According to the Journal:

The investment is a sign of how the Facebook “mafia” is flourishing in Silicon Valley, helping to fuel new start-up activity….Mr. Heiliger said one of the key reasons he invested in Quora is because of his friendship with Mr. D’Angelo and Mr. Cheever when they all worked together at Facebook several years ago.

A source told us a few months ago that he didn’t have high hopes for Quora, but the company is now apparently valued at $400M. Between this and Instagram, perhaps the Facebook mafia can catchup to PayPal yet.

Update: A source wrote in to tell us that Benchmark Capital also contributed to the round. Well, well.

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